When we think about influence at work, we often imagine the big moments: the presentation to leadership, the pitch deck in a meeting, and the proposal shared with senior decision-makers. But real influence often happens before those moments through the conversations, relationships, and trust built over time.
Early in my career, I used to think I had to be the one in the room with all the answers. I thought influence was about authority or the spotlight. But the more I worked across teams, the more I saw a different pattern: the ideas that gained traction weren’t always the loudest or most polished. They were the ones who had already been quietly supported by people others trusted.
This is the power of leveraging work relationships—not just through formal roles but through the informal ecosystem that shapes how decisions are made. Once you’ve identified your stakeholders, the next layer of influence mastery is activating the people around them.
Influence Lives Beyond the Room
When you seed ideas in informal circles, whether during hallway chats, Slack threads, quick coffee catchups, you give them space to grow naturally. When you get to the formal conversation, your idea feels familiar. It doesn’t feel like a pitch; it feels like momentum.
Many of us already know and work with the kinds of people who shape how ideas spread. We just haven’t learned to activate them deliberately. Once you do, you unlock a new level of influence that helps your message reach farther and land stronger.
Let’s break down the three types of work relationships that can help you build traction before the big ask ever happens:
1. Informal Leaders
These are the people others turn to for gut checks, guidance, or a reality check. They might not have the most significant titles, but they influence tenure, credibility, or technical expertise. Their opinions carry weight.
Why they matter: If an informal leader backs your idea, others will take it seriously. They signal, “This is worth paying attention to.”
How to engage them: Share your idea casually and early. Ask for their thoughts. Let them help shape it. Their input creates a sense of shared ownership and their support becomes a stamp of approval.
2. Cross-Functional Connectors
Every organization has people who are plugged in across multiple teams. They’re often involved in key projects, serve on task forces, or are well-networked. These folks are essential bridges between silos.
Why they matter: They can spread your idea organically. When they understand your vision, they bring it into rooms you’re not in.
How to engage them: Ask for a quick sync to share your work. Frame your idea in terms of how it connects to the team’s goals. Let them carry the message naturally through their networks.
3. Cultural Influencers
Cultural influencers shape how things are perceived—not through power but presence. They might be inclusion advocates, social connectors, community builders, or just the person everyone listens to at lunch. They shape what’s seen as exciting, accepted, or aligned with “how we do things here.”
Why they matter: Their support helps shift mindset. If they’re excited about your idea, others will be too.
How to engage them: Share the bigger picture of your idea. Tap into values, mission, or community impact. Help them see why it matters, and they’ll amplify it authentically.
Activating Your Ecosystem
Once you start seeing your work relationships as an ecosystem and not as a hierarchy, you begin to understand where your influence can really grow. Think about who in your world fits these roles. Who’s the informal leader you trust? The cross-functional collaborator who always knows what’s going on? The person whose enthusiasm sparks others to follow?
These are your allies. Start small, loop them in early, ask for advice instead of pitching, let the conversation evolve, and share your ideas in a way that feels exploratory, not finalized.
When you engage these voices with intention, you’ll start to see real signs of momentum:
- Your idea shows up in meetings before you present it
- People echo your vision in their own words
- Objections are smaller because they’ve already been addressed informally
And remember: you’re not always the messenger. Sometimes, the most powerful support comes when someone else shares your idea. Influence isn’t about ownership, it’s about momentum.
This isn’t about politicking or backchanneling. It’s about understanding how influence works in human systems. People trust people. And ideas spread fastest when they move through trusted networks.
When it comes to moving your ideas forward, don’t start with the presentation if you want to build real influence. Start with the people. Invest in authentic relationships, share your thinking early, and be open to shaping your ideas.
The more you engage across these informal layers, the more your ideas will grow. Not because you demanded it, but because the people around you believed in it.
